Beyond What Meets the Eye
by Empress Jade
Summary: Everyone has a secret. And Eve's included. But what is it?
1. The Storm

This is just a little something to tide you guys over until I get the next series up. I guess it's kind of set between the two series, but it doesn't really have much to do with them. It's still Lily/James, when they're together, but you find out a lot more about Eve and there's more Sirius for all you Sirius-lovers out there! It's almost a cross-over, but not really, I don't bring in different characters or anything. And once you find out what's going on, please keep reading because I'll explain where I got my insane ideas at the end okay? So just keep going!

It all belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.

The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was busy, full of students trying to scarf down their breakfasts in the remaining ten minutes before classes. Lily Evans scooped up spoonfuls of Cheerios as fast she possibly could, there was nothing worse than soggy cereal. She looked at her best friend, Eve Willis, who was rocking anxiously on the edge of her seat.

"Eve, dear, what is wrong?" Lily asked, a dribble of milk came out of her mouth.

"Huh? Oh, I'm just waiting for the mail to come."

"I've never known anyone who likes their vitamins so much, my mother would be so proud of you," Lily shook her head in mock disgust, remembering when Eve had told her that her grandmother sent her vitamins everyday in the mail.

"I've told you already, these are special nutrients that only the witches familiar with ancient herbology in China can make. And it's all natural, so it has to be taken right away. Or else it rots. Trust me, I've tasted it, you do not want to have rotting vitamins," Eve replied, scanning the room again.

"Okay, okay, you do things your way and I'll do them mine, swami," Lily retorted between gulps of pumpkin juice.

"Well, we only have a few minutes left, I'm going the check the dorm. Those owls have to come all the way from China, some of them aren't sure where to take the packages," she said the Lily, flashing a smile full of straight white teeth.

"No prob, I'll meet you in our first class…Charms with Slytherins," she responded as she glanced at her schedule, "Yahoo. Well, at least it's charms."

A few minutes later, Lily had made her way up to the Charms room where she saw a seat next to James and Sirius. James. Just the name itself made her smile. But she held it back, couldn't let him get too complacent.

Before they spotted her, however, she snuck up behind James and grabbed him into an unbreakable headlock.

"Uurrrghhh…" came his incomprehensible reply.

"Good morning, gentlemen," she greeted cheerfully as she released James. "And ladies too," she added, tipping her head toward Sirius. But he shook it off.

"Lily! Dahhhh-ling!" came the terrible French accent of a hyper Sirius. "Jamsie here was just telling us about how much he looooooved you! And I can certainly see why." He looked at James who was still rubbing his neck.

Lily was just in the middle of thinking up a comeback when Eve, followed by an angry looking Professor Tille, the charms teacher, entered the room.

"Miss Willis! You are late! Again!" she announced loudly. Then her expression turned soft. "Kidding. Who do I look like, Venere?" Chuckles came from everyone in the class, except the Slytherins. Professor Venere, the potions teacher, was the head of their house. It was well known that Tille, a vivacious young blonde teacher did not get along with Professor Venere.

"Okay, sit down, get comfy, whatever. Today we will be working on—" she stopped in the middle of her sentence when an unbelievable rolling could be heard outside.

All the students peered out the windows. The sky was dark, almost like night. Thick clouds formed almost in front of their eyes. Spears of lightning illuminated the sky and the ground shook with each roll of thunder.

"What on earth?" the young teacher walked to one of the windows. Her shock was evident, but she had to prove to the rest of the staff that she was just as competent in an unusual situation as they were. "Well, this will not do." She tapped her wand toward the windows, and heavy black drapes appeared in front of them.

All the kids slumped in their chairs, desperate to know how bad the storm was going to be. It was unlike anything they had ever seen.

"Now, we'll be doing advanced levitation today, on ourselves." 

The students were once again excited. This was something they had wanted to learn to do for years. But it was difficult magic, and very few books printed the spell because too many young wizards tried it. Most ended up hanging upside-down for a week. Others zoomed around their rooms for months straight.

"I'll demonstrate," she continued, "It's easiest if you begin sitting on the floor. Close your eyes and picture yourself floating in the air. Hold out your wand. Now the word is _levitamo_. Use the loop and flick wand movement and then—"

Professor Tille was interrupted for the second time. A small scroll of paper appeared out of thin air in front of her. She looked at it for a moment, then unrolled and read it. Her face was hard to read, but then she spoke.

"K guys, here's the deal. This note's from the headmaster. They're predicting that it's going to be a pretty severe storm with earthquakes. Which means that we're all going to be up in our house towers until it's over. So let's go. And um…they don't know how long it's going to last, maybe days."

"Days?" Eve asked weakly. She looked nervous and afraid. Nothing like the usual Eve.

"Don't worry, it's just going to be us. They'll bring us food and everything," Lily answered matter-of-factly. But she noticed that Eve still looked uncomfortable. "What's the matter? You're not claustrophobic or anything. Are you?"

"No. I'm fine. I'm just worried though…do you think the owls will be able to fly in this weather?" she asked, fearing the answer.

"C'mon Eve. Look outside. Nothing's gonna be flying in that. Expecting an owl from some secret guy?" Lily smiled devilishly.

"I wish. It's just that…well, my vitamins didn't come today. That's all," her eyes wandered to the floor as they climbed more and more stairs.

"I'm sure you'll live, my darling."

"Yeah…" Eve replied softly.

Lily, being Head Girl, lead their house up to the tower, making sure that every little first year was accounted for.

"And…Jennifer Zambezi," Lily read the list and found a little brunette in the back of the common room. "Okay, now that everyone's here, all you have to know is that you are to stay here in the tower. No excuses. If you need anything, tell one of the prefects, myself, or James. Professor McGonagall will be bringing food up to us later so don't worry about going hungry."

As Lily finished her little speech, about half of the Gryffindors raced up to their dorm rooms, and the rest of them stayed in the common room. She decided to stay in the common room with the guys.

Lily threw herself in a squashy armchair next to James and listened in on the guys' conversation.

"Let's sneak out! There's not gonna be another storm like this for decades, we'll be able to tell our kids about it!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Providing that you find a girl crazy enough to marry you," Lily retorted.

"Who said you needed to be married to have kids?"

"You don't even have a date to the Fall Ball," James chipped in.

"Whose side on you on, Prongs? Besides, I have nothing to worry about," Sirius said confidently.

"Oh yeah? Who're you going with?" Lily asked.

"Our very favorite Dragonlady," he leaned back with elation.

"Eve?!" Lily exclaimed with disbelief. James coughed up the juice that he was drinking.

"No way, she said yes?"

"Oh yeah, I should probably ask her."

Lily shook her head and looked around for Eve.

"Hey, where is she anyway?" Lily inquired. Her best friend was out of sight.

"Haven't seen her," James answered, wrapping his arms around her waist and.

She pulled his arms off of her.

"Can this wait?" she asked him. "I want to find Eve, I have a funny feeling about her."

"Ouch. Dude, you just got DE-NIED!" Sirius yelled loudly toward James.

Lily hopped up and looked around the room for Eve again. But she was nowhere to be found. Lily decided to check the dorm room, even though she had no idea why Eve would be up there. She jumped up the stairs two at a time and opened her dorm door. It was deathly dark as she walked in. The drapes around Eve's bed were closed.

"Eve? Are you in here?"

Silence. Lily went to Eve's bed and pulled the curtains open.

Inside was the scariest sight she had ever seen.

Eve was sitting on her bed, looking as if she hadn't eaten or slept for days. She had her knees pulled up and her arms around them. Her favorite black rose necklace was clenched in her hand. Her usually tan face was pale and blue-looking. But the scariest thing was her eyes. Normally warm and brown, they glowed silver.

Lily had never ever been afraid of her best friend. But she was.

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Sorry, I wasn't planning on making it a series, but it will probably only be two or three chapters. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but I wanted to at least get this part up today! Keep reading and please review! Thanks!


	2. The Power of Silver

AN: Alright everyone, I'm really warning you about this chapter. It's gonna be weird. I can feel it coming. But read it anyway, okay? I'll try to incorporate my bizarre ideas into good writing! Review please!

BEYOND WHAT MEETS THE EYECHAPTER 2

BY EMPRESS JADE

Lily continued to stare in awe at her best friend.

And Eve's eyes continued to glow silver. Not gray, but silver as she stared straight ahead. She looked vicious. Like a hunter.

"Eve?" Lily cursed her voice for sounding so afraid. For a moment, she listened to the rain pound on the window.

Eve's eyes blinked and were brown again. She too, looked afraid. And like she hadn't eaten or slept for days.

"Lily?" Eve sounded like a little girl who had just woken up.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Help me."

"Sure sweetie," Lily's voice became soothing, but she was still afraid to touch Eve.

"Dumbledore. Take me. Right now." She spoke in short, clipped phrases, as if speaking in itself was too difficult.

"Come on." Lily placed one arm around Eve's shoulders and took hold of her hand. Eve's hands were clammy and ice cold.

Once Lily had lifted her off the bed, Eve was actually able to walk, but she shook. Uncontrollably. She placed one foot in front of the other just fine, yet her eyes were dazed. They made their way down the hall and the stairs, which were a bit more difficult. Eve hadn't seemed to understand that she had to go down and not just forward anymore.

"There," Lily let go of Eve's arm as they stepped off the last stair and into the common room.

There were still a few people there. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were sprawled on the floor, undoubted planning something illegal.

Eve's body suddenly went rigid. Her head jerked toward the boys.

Then it happened again. Her eyes turned silver, bright, like a beacon shining. She stared at them like an eagle perched on a limb. She lunged at them.

But her eyes began to fade. Back to brown, and then silver again. Brown, silver, brown, silver. As if the two colors were fighting each other for the limelight. Eve stopped, mid-leap at the boys.

They jumped up and looked at her, in shock.

"Eve, what the hell?" Sirius hopped over a pillow and knelt beside her. She was lying on the floor now, still trembling. He turned her on her side and saw the pained look on her face. "Lil? What's going on?"

"I…I don't know," Lily stammered. "But I have to take her to Dumbledore. That's all she could say."

"We'll come with you," Sirius declared.

"No…" Eve managed to murmur.

Sirius looked almost offended. If it was possible for him to be offended.

"I'll take her, and let you guys know what's up, k?" Lily offered. "None of us are really supposed to be out of the tower anyway," she added, hoping to make him feel better. Not that breaking the rules had ever stopped him before.

"Yeah," he replied in a very un-Sirius-like tone. It was like…concern.

"Hur-ry…" Eve gasped through her breaths as Lily and Sirius pulled her up.

Lily pushed her friend along after they had maneuvered through the portrait hole. Dumbledore's office (she assumed that's where he would be) was quite a ways from where they were. She felt desperate to kill some of the silence, even though she wasn't sure if Eve could hear her.

"Well…at least it doesn't get much worse than this," she said, more to herself than Eve.

There was a roll of thunder that could be heard in the center of the castle.

And the ground shook. First it was just a tremble, then more and more until it was like canons going off.

Lily and Eve were thrown to the ground where they fought to stand back up. But it was useless.

Bits of the ceiling's plaster started to sprinkle on them.

"Ahh!" Lily screamed and covered her face with her arms. "Ow!" Chunks of the ceiling were falling on them. 

And then it stopped.

Lily slowly removed her arms from her head. Eve was lying on the floor next to her, on her stomach.

They were trapped. Pieces of wall and ceiling surrounded them and it didn't seem possible to get out.

"Eve, we're trapped," Lily stated the obvious.

There was no answer.

"Eve?"

No answer.

"Eve!" Lily shouted in desperation.

There still wasn't a reply, but Eve began to slowly push herself up with her arms. She was soon kneeling with her head bowed down, hair veiling her face.

Her head jerked up and her dark hair flew backwards.

The silver was back. And gleaming brighter than ever.

Eve pounced and Lily found herself on her back. Her opened her eyes and saw the silver. Silver had never been so scary.

"Eve! No! Stop! Please!" Lily begged. She tried to get up, and she couldn't. Even for being an athlete, Lily had never imagined that Eve could be this strong.

Eve looked down on her, a smile playing on her lips. But all she did was look at Lily. Like a cat toying with its mouse. A hunter that had found its prey. This wasn't Eve. Not Lily's Eve. It was like someone else took over when the silver crept in.

"Please…" Lily whispered. She closed her eyes again and prepared for the worst.

With that last plead, the brown was back. Fearful, but warm brown eyes.

Eve immediately jumped off and huddled against some debris. She shivered and shook, wrapping her limbs around herself and making herself look about five times as small as she really was.

"Just tell me what's wrong, I can help you. Are you sick?" Lily cautiously placed an arm around Eve.

She shook her head and mumbled incoherent words.

"I can't understand you, dear."

"I _can't_ tell you," Eve said clearly. "They'd kill me."

"Who would kill you?" Lily asked.

"The elders."

"The elders of what?"

"The Night World," Eve whispered. It was barely audible. Lily blinked to make sure she had heard correctly.

"Eve, the Night World is just a myth that wizarding parents use to scare their kids with," she replied matter-of-factly.

"No, it isn't," Eve retorted. Articulately, but not harshly.

"Honey, it's okay."

Eve shook her head again.

"Just tell me," Lily persisted.

Eve sighed and bit on her lower lip. Then she pulled back her top lip.

"Oh my…" Lily faltered.

Eve's canine teeth were about an inch and a half long, pointed and femininely curved. Not teeth. Fangs.

"You're…" Lily paused.

"A vampire."

"I can't believe it." Lily said with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Well you'd better," Eve stated plainly. "If I don't feed in a few minutes, my hunting instincts will attack the nearest person."

"Me." Lily put the pieces together.

"Exactly."

"How often do you have to…" Lily searched for the right word, "feed?"

"Once a day."

Lily gasped. "So you kill someone everyday?"

"No, they don't die."

"They just get better?"

"Yeah, pretty much, as long as I don't take too much," Eve forced out between her breaths.

Lily's mind was racing. She didn't like problems. That's why she could always come up with a solution. To any problem. _Any_ problem. But right now she could only think of one to think problem. And she was definitely one to act on her plans.

She slowly pulled her robes away from her neck. "So go ahead." She moved her neck toward Eve.

But Eve shook her head. "I can't do that."

"Why not?" Lily asked indignantly.

"You don't feed off people you care about. It just isn't done." When Eve saw the questioning look in Lily's eyes, she went on. "Lil, we live in the same room. I could have fed off you any night. _If_ I had wanted to. But I didn't. And I'm not going to."

"But you just said yourself that you were going attack the nearest person anyway. So you get my blood no matter what. You can at least just do it now, while I'm offering."

Eve realized that she really didn't have a choice. She bit her bottom lip again and her fangs were back.

"No, not like that," she said. "We can be a little more civilized." Instead of leaning toward Lily's neck, she took her wrist instead and pulled her sleeve back. "Sure?"

"Yeah," Lily gulped and held her breath.

There was sting at contact. But Lily was surprised that there was no pain after that. She decided to keep her eyes closed. And what she saw was amazing.

Gold and black swirls, like rings around Saturn, with a great burst of light from behind them.

Eve's mind. A complicated, fuzzy sphere of good thoughts and bad thoughts. But most of all, feelings. Guilt, pain, and love. Hidden love and must stay hidden. Lily was in the midst of searching for more information about that love…

It disappeared.

Lily opened her eyes and Eve was wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

Her skin was glowing again with light and color. But there was still the look of guilt.

"I shouldn't have done that."

"Eve, we both know that you didn't have a choice. And I offered. It's not you attacked me."

"I would have. A few minutes more and I would have." Eve continued to look at the floor.

"It wasn't that bad. But why did you stop? It's was so cool…I could see your mind. I guess I really shouldn't be so happy about prying in your thoughts."

"I had to stop. You wouldn't have had any more blood left. I would have drank you dry."

"Oh," it was so obvious to Lily then.

There was another uncomfortable moment of silence. Lily had to speak.

"So, if you've always been a vampire, how come you look older than you did when I met you?"

"That's just a story," Eve dared to look Lily in the eyes now. "Well, it's kind of true. There are two kinds of vampires. You didn't know that did you?" Lily shook her head no. "There are made vampires, they become vampires after they get bitten. They stay the same age as they were when they were bitten. But you have to go through a blood exchange process. Don't worry, you're not going to sprout fangs any time soon."

Lily half-smiled at this statement, and waited for Eve to keep speaking.

"The other kind is called the lamia. LAY-mee-uh. That's me. We're born vampires. Our children are vampires. And we're the best kind of vampires. I know that sounds prejudiced, but we are. We age, but we can stop aging whenever we want."

"How come you guys have to drink blood though?" Lily had always wanted to know this about vampires. She was expecting some kind of 'we just do' answer, but that's not what she got.

"Vampires are immortal. You knew that though. Only burning will kill us, and wood of course. Yes, that's one myth that's true. But like all living things, we need oxygen to survive. BUT, our immortal vampire cells don't carry oxygen. Catching on?"

"So you have to take blood from humans because it already has oxygen in it," Lily suggested.

"Right. You see, up until last year, I had to feed off people."

"Which is why you had all those boyfriends, but you always dumped them."

"Yes, I used all those guys to feed off of. And I didn't feel bad at all because I didn't care about them," Eve replied without the slightest bit of sorrow in her voice. "But now, the Elders of the Night World want to make it easier for vampires living with humans to feed. So they've got this thing where they mail a package of blood to you everyday. That's why I was always so anxious to get my mail in the morning."

"The Night World really is real," Lily said in half-disbelief. "But I thought they were bad, why would they want to help anyone? Even someone that's one of them?"

"Well, you're right. The Night World is a society all around us made up of dark creatures…vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, and certain kinds of witches. So we are more ruthless. But the most important law of the Night World is not to let anyone else find out about it. So if they mail blood to me, I won't have to hunt, making it a lot easier to hide the fact that I'm a vampire," Eve explained.

"Where do they get this blood?" Lily asked cautiously. She almost didn't want to know.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad. They have some human donors, mostly witches that will give blood, but not many. Most of the blood comes from animals. Deer are the best. And they don't die either."

Lily nodded. It was all coming together. Eve's boyfriends, the "vitamins" that she got in the mail every morning, but…

"I thought that Night people were supposed to hate humans, or is that just a myth too?"

"No it's true. I'm not sure why. It might be because we have special powers, that Night Worlders think they're better than humans.

"What kind of special powers?" Lily asked.

"Well, vampires for instance, we're a lot faster and stronger than you, no offence, and our senses are stronger: better sight, smell, and hearing. And we're telepathic."

"Oh."

"But it might also be that you have something we don't," Eve continued.

"Like what?"

"I'll use vampires as an example again. Humans automatically have oxygen. They don't have to hunt for it everyday. See what I mean?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Lily replied. "But wait, didn't you say the Night World law wouldn't let you tell a human about the Night World?" Eve nodded. "Didn't you just tell me everything?"

"I did. And for that I could be killed. And you could be killed."

Lily became extremely nervous.

"But only if they find out that I told you."

"So we're pretty much safe, right?"

"Yep."

Lily sighed. "Ugh. Great."

"What is it?"

"We're still trapped," Lily motioned toward all the debris around them.

Eve tossed her head backward and laughed.

"Eve! This isn't funny, we could be here for hours before they find us!"

"Chill, it isn't a problem." Eve stood up, well, as far up as she could in that tight amount of space.

She placed her hands on the pieces of ceiling.

Her eyes turned silver, and Lily was very much afraid again.

But with one swift motion, Eve pushed the debris, and there was a gap of light shining through.

Lily's fear left her. "For a second, I thought you were gonna jump on me again."

"Nope, remember I told you that we're a lot stronger than humans."

"So you're eyes turn silver every time you do something…vampirish?" Lily asked, not quite sure whether 'vampirish' was really the right word, or even a word at all.

"Yeah, it's kinda scary, huh?"

"Very scary." Lily crawled through the hole, followed by Eve.

The girls started on their way back to the tower, since they had no reason to find Professor Dumbledore anymore. Lily felt that they were closer friends than ever.

But as they dusted bits of dry wall off their robes, a thought came to her. "Hey Eve?"

"Hm?" Eve replied, obviously also in her own thoughts.

"Remember when I could see your mind, when you were…feeding?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, that always happens. Whenever I feed off anyone."

"Good, but that's not what I was going to ask."

"Oh, go on."

"Well," Lily tried to find the words to explain it. "I could see all this stuff in your mind. And most of it was pretty normal stuff that I would expect in your mind, had I known I was going to see it."

"Uh huh."

"But there was one thing I didn't understand. There was this one thought about love in your mind. And it was like you were focusing all your attention on keeping it from everyone."

Eve stopped walking. Her eyes looked panicked, and she stared at the floor.

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Okay…that was kind of a strange chapter, huh? Not what you were expecting, was it? But the reason I wanted to add it in was because I made a deal with a friend. We would switch favorite books. I gave her mine, and she gave me hers. I gave her Rebecca (well…it's ONE of my favorites), I typically read classics and other "deep" books. She gave me Secret Vampire by L. J. Smith. Don't laugh at the title, I know it's stupid…and the cover was even worse, but it was actually pretty good. I've never read a book like that before. So after I read it, I was hooked. I've read the next three books in the series and I'm waiting for her to bring me the rest. The series is the Night World (duh…).

Apologies to those who've already read Night World books about that whole, VERY long explanation about the Night World. It was necessary for those who haven't read it. I love the characters in those books, but I'm not going to put any of them in this story. (Goodbye Ash…he's the coolest character!).

More apologies for any typos in this. I was writing it really fast and I wanted to post it today without having to read through the whole thing. Let me know if there are serious grammar problems, I'll fix them.

You know what's coming: REVIEW PLEASE! Even if you thought it was totally weird. Or that Eve being a vampire was totally out of place. Or even if you absolutely hated it and all you're going to do it flame!

Expect one or two more chapters in this series, then I'm going to start the next L/J one.

THANKS FOR READING! I LOVE YOU GUYS! (Yes, even more than I love Ash) (Okay, maybe not) (Just kidding)

  



	3. The Search for Solutions

Eve 3

Spring Break! You've gotta love it! A whole week of doing absolutely NOTHING and feeling great about it. But now I'm starting to feel like I should do something productive. That's where this writing thing comes in.

You know, I decided to read the second chapter again…and I didn't actually write it very well, did I? I'm thinking that maybe I should go back and redo some of it. Let me know what you think.

All Harry Potter material belongs to J. K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.

The Night World belongs to L. J. Smith.

(Weird how women writers like to go by their initials, huh?)

BEYOND WHAT MEETS THE EYECHAPTER 3

BY EMPRESS JADE

"Padfoot, calm down. They're fine," James Potter said for the tenth time.

But Sirius continued to pace, looking at the portrait hole expectantly every few minutes.

"You know…if I didn't know better, I would almost think that you _cared_ about her," James looked at his best friend devilishly.

"Yeah, me too," Remus joined in. "But then I reminded myself 'Sirius Black doesn't care about girls. Just their bodies.'"

"Well, she's a Quidditch player, they all have nice bodies. She's a hot chick," Sirius shot back defensively.

James smiled to himself. "C'mon man, it's Lily and Eve. If any two girls could handle a collapsing building, it would be them." But the words 'collapsing building' seemed to catch his own attention. "Hope Lil's okay," he added quietly.

"But still, why was she acting all whacked up before they left?" Sirius suddenly looked up at his friends.

James looked confused.

"I meant Eve, not Lil."

The boys were all quiet, trying to think of an explaination.

"Maybe she was on drugs. She looked like she hadn't had her heroine for a few days," Peter chirped sarcastically.

"She's not on drugs!" Sirius erupted and soon found his hand at the chubby boy's throat. Peter looked terrified and shrank backwards as he advanced on him.

"Hey dude, chill," James pried Sirius off Peter and pushed him down into a chair.

Peter muttered something softly and went up to bed, fearing another outbreak.

The room was quiet as the other three continued to wait for the girls.

Lily and Eve stood in a dimly lit hall. Eve looked nervous.

"You do like someone, don't you?" Lily asked quietly. "You pretend like you don't by getting every other guy in this school."

Eve's first reaction was to deny it, but she knew that Lily had seen into her mind. She was so used to putting up mental barriers when she fed, but this time, she forgot.

Her second reaction was to blank Lily's memory, vampires had that power. Yet she couldn't bring herself to do it, Lil was her best friend.

"Look Lil, it's not that simple. It's really easy for you, you know that? You like the guy, you get the guy to like you, and everyone's happy. Minus the occasional jealous ex."

Lily nodded, what Eve was saying made perfect sense.

"But there's more of a conflict for me. Remember when I told you about the first rule of the Night World being that you couldn't tell a human about the Night World? Well, the second rule is that you can't fall in love with a human."

"Why not?"

"Well, falling in love with a human usually directly leads you to tell them about the Night World. Plus, just about everyone else in the Night World considers humans to be vermin. Second class people. I guess it's pretty racist, huh?"

"Definitely."

"So I can't go out with a guy I actually like, because the Night World would send people to kill him," Eve summed up simply.

"Oh." Lily knew that saying 'oh' was the worst thing she could have said. But the whole idea hit her by surprise, that 'oh' was the only word that would come out.

The girls were silent.

"So, um…" Lily's voice was almost a whisper. "Who is it?"

Eve sighed. "You just don't give up do you?" She smiled, but then looked disheartened. "It's probably better if I don't tell you."

Lily made a puppy face, and Eve continued, "Nothing personal. It's just that, maybe, if no one else knows, it'll be like it doesn't really exist. Like I don't really like him. Know what I mean?"

"Sorta. I guess so."

"So, if it doesn't really exist, then I'll have the possibility of dissolving my mind of the thoughts. So maybe I'll get over it or whatever. And then no one gets hurt. Not me or him. And no one has to die."

Lily opened her mouth to argue, but shut it promptly. She knew when to keep going and when to stop pushing it. And now was a time to stop. Eve's face was dead serious.

They made their way to the portrait hole in silence.

"'We're not in Kansas anymore'," Lily murmured to a disheveled Fat Lady. The password had been changed in honor of the storm.

The girls were two steps into the common room when they spotted the boys sitting around the fire, waiting for them.

Lily's mind froze. How could she have been so stupid?

They hadn't thought of a story to tell the guys. And obviously telling the truth was out of the question.

"Eve!" Sirius jumped over the back of a wing chair toward her, but then slowing down and approaching her cautiously. "Um…you okay?" he asked sheepishly.

Lily glanced apprehensively at Eve. 

But Eve was a step ahead of her.

"Yeah. You know those vitamins my grandma insists that I take?" she was saying, looking perfectly candid and cool. "Well as it turns out, they weren't packaging them properly. They're a special mixture that has to be taken right away, but the bags were leaking. And when oxygen hits, it ruins the molecular structure and causes the mixture to ferment. Which is really kinda weird, because normally nonaerobic substances ferment because only aerobic…" and she kept going on and on and on. She knew that talking about chemistry would get these guys confused.

Lily smiled to herself. Yep, Eve was most definitely her old self. Always able to talk her way in and out of anything.

"…so the whole thing has been running around in my system for a few months and my body just couldn't take it anymore! But don't you worry, Madam Pomfrey fixed me right up and I'm as good as new!" she exclaimed, beaming all the while.

Sirius looked puzzled. Calm, but puzzled. As if his gut instinct told him that there really was something wrong, but his mind told him that everything Eve was saying was making perfect sense. Not to mention that he really didn't know anything about chemistry.

"Oh good," James spoke up from behind Sirius. "We were afraid something was really wrong. You looked pretty sick when you left." He turned to his best friend, "See? I told you there was nothing to worry about."

"Me? Worried? I laugh at the word!" The old Sirius was back. And was doing a very bad James Earl Jones voice. "Ha ha ha!"

James had maneuvered himself so that he was standing next to Lily with an arm around her waist. "So you didn't get caught in the earthquake, did you? Parts of the building were coming apart."

"Now now, if we had gotten stuck, would we be here now?" she smiled sweetly and leaned against him.

He shrugged and kissed the top of her head.

Sirius gagged quietly, pretending to hide it. " *cough* getaroom *cough cough*"

James glared at him. "Don't be jealous just because you aren't getting any, my friend," he smiled.

"I get plenty more than you do and we both know it," Sirius stated in a nonchalant voice.

"Okay boys, that's enough," Lily cut in. She turned to Eve. "I'm tired and it's late. Let's go to bed."

There was a little chorus of "good night"s as the girls headed to one stairway, and the boys to the other.

"Eve, come here for a sec," Sirius's voice called as she was almost up the stairs.

She hesitated for a moment, and then back down a few steps to meet him. "Yeah?"

"Wanna go to the Fall Ball with me?" he asked in a casual voice that sounded a bit forced.

Eve tried to hide her surprise, but her mouth still hung open and her eyes stared in disbelief.

"C'mon, it won't be _that_ bad. It's me!"

Lily watched from the top of the stairs as Eve looked uneasily at the floor. She had never seen Eve vacillate when it came to a date. She always said yes if she didn't have a date and the guy was decent. Okay, so it was Sirius, who was most certainly not normal in _any_ way, but he was decent.

Lily thought to herself quietly for a moment, and suddenly her eyes gleamed in understanding. There was only one reason why Eve would say no.

"Hurry up, it's almost one!" Lily shouted, hoping it would be enough to rescue her friend from the situation. For the time being, at least.

Eve looked up at Lily with an expression of relief. "Look, I'm dead tired, I'll talk to you later. Maybe tomorrow or something," she glanced quickly at Sirius.

Then she bolted up the stairs and into their dorm room.

"So you figured it out, huh?" Eve whispered, so as not to wake up the other girls.

"Hate to say it, but it was pretty obvious. Well, not _obvious_ obvious, just because I know you."

Eve sighed and sat on her bed. "So I'll just have to say no tomorrow, simple as that."

"But he really likes you, I know he does. You're not just another pretty girl to him, Eve! Imagine how much you're going to hurt him," Lily looked at her earnestly.

"Look, he's better a little emotionally hurt now, than eventually _dead_!" she hissed back, a little harsher than she had planned.

Yet she knew Lily was right. Somehow Lily was almost right when it came to these kinds of things, as if she had some inner insight or something of the sort.

"Sorry," Eve added quietly. "It's just kinda stressful. I've always hated making decisions like this."  
"Don't worry, I know what you mean."

"How about this? I'll write to my cousin. He knows a lot about dealing with humans, maybe he'll know what I should do. And he's part of Circle Daybreak, a group of ex-Night Worlders who are trying to help humans and stuff."

"Sounds like a good idea. Why don't you write now, so it'll get to him as soon as possible."

A few minutes later, Eve was sealing a little envelope. Suddenly she stopped.

"Ugh…Lil, we are so stupid!"

"Okay…Why?"

"Owls can't fly in this whether!"

"Oh great. What are we going to do?" Lily sighed.

Eve sat down again, and puckered her lips in thought. "Alright, vampires are telepathic."

"You already told me that."

"So…maybe, if I concentrate hard enough, I can send a message to him. It won't be very clear though, he's far away, he doesn't even live in England."

"Where _does_ he live?"

"Um…I'm not actually sure. He moves around a lot. But he's always on the west coast."

"West coast of what?" Lily feared the answer.

"The U.S."

Lily's jaw dropped. "Can telepathic messages go over an ocean and a continent?"

"I don't think so. But it might come to him as sort of a …premonition. Like he gets the feeling that I need something, so maybe he'll try to contact me. It's worth a try."

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Thanks for reading and please review!

Hey, I know I said it was only going to be a couple chapters, but I'm having a lot of fun writing this, so it looks like it's going to be longer.

I really need a beta reader! Anyone who's interested, let me know in your review (which you're all going to write one, right?). I really need someone who's good with grammar, has read a lot, and can provide "constructive criticism" as well as enjoy the stories.

Okay, LJS readers, I wonder who her west coast cousin could be…hm…?

Once again, I didn't proofread or edit or revise (bad girl) so excuse errors please. If there are a lot , tell me and I'll get it fixed. Another reason why I need a beta reader.

Lastly, do you think I should talk about the night world less and go into the romance story more, or talk more about the night world and stuff too?

Oh I forgot, (I know, I said the last comment was going to be last) I'm thinking about starting the new L/J series soon and write it at the same time I'm writing this. I can't really get any good ideas though, so if you have some and would like to share, that would be great!

Fun word to say of the day: disingenuous

THANK YOU!

Love ~ Empress Jade  



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